3 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging System

描述(由申请人提供)： 美国国立卫生研究院(NIH)资助的磁共振成像(MRI)研究在了解心血管疾病的病理过程和临床管理方面取得了许多重要进展。随着这些研究应用变得更加复杂(例如，分子成像)，假设试图揭示更离散的生理和细胞信息，对成像硬件的需求也变得明显更大。我们已经确定了约翰·霍普金斯医学院由NIH资助的一些项目，这些项目目前受到当前1.5Tesla MRI系统的根本限制。虽然超高场系统可用来克服其中一些问题，但其高度的技术复杂性和非常有限的物理访问阻碍了对大型动物和人类的调查。最近开发的全身3特斯拉系统为心血管和神经成像和光谱应用提供了许多非常特殊的优势。在这项申请中，我们提出了一个独特的跨学科项目概念，以确保购买研究专用、全口径3T磁共振扫描仪的资金。通过与约翰霍普金斯大学贝维尤医学中心的合作，该系统将直接进入医院急诊室和设备齐全的动物手术室，并将用于建立一个内部心血管成像研究中心，该中心将有助于更好地满足目前由NIH资助的项目的目标，并促进约翰霍普金斯大学医学院新的基础和临床假说驱动的生物医学研究的扩展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): National Institute of Health (NIH) funded magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research has contributed a number of important advances towards the understanding of pathological processes and clinical management of cardiovascular disease. As these research applications become more complex (e.g., molecular imaging) and hypotheses seek to uncover more discrete physiological and cellular information, the demands on the imaging hardware also become significantly greater. We have identified a number of NIH funded programs at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine that currently suffer from the fundamental limitations of current 1.5 Tesla MRI systems. While ultra-high field systems are available to overcome some of these issues, their high degree of technical complexity and very limited physical access preclude large animal and human investigation. Recently developed full-body 3 Tesla systems offer a number of very specific advantages for cardiovascular and neurological imaging and spectroscopic applications. In this application, we propose a unique interdisciplinary project concept to secure funding towards the purchase of a research dedicated, full-bore 3T MRI scanner. Through a partnership with the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, the system will feature direct access to both the hospital emergency room and a fully equipped animal surgical suite and will be used to establish an internal cardiovascular imaging research center that will exist to help better satisfy the objectives of current NIH funded projects, as well as facilitate the expansion of new basic and clinical hypothesis-driven biomedical research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.